Italian National Team players Cacciamani and Ricchi conquer the Italian Triple Crown.

Forlì Softball Club, 2019 Women's European Cup Winners Cup Champion, is celebrating the incredible goal of a double Triple Crown, the one for the batters conquered by Beatrice Ricchi and that of the pitchers by Ilaria Cacciamani.

In softball, a player earns a Triple Crown when he leads a league in three specific statistical categories in the same season. For the batters, the three categories are batting average, home runs, and RBIs (Runs Batted In), while, for the pitchers, the three statistics are Wins, Earn Run Average, and Strikeouts.

Beatrice Ricchi ended her regular season with the stellar batting average of .646, 5 home runs, and 23 RBI. Club and National Team teammate Ilaria Cacciamani closed her regular season with 8 wins, a 0.53 ERA, and 99 strikeouts.

“When I play I don't think about the statistics. I play for the team, and that's what guides me at every at-bat, but I don't deny that, when such personal satisfaction arrives, it's an honor," commented Beatrice Ricchi, at the first Triple Crown of her career. 

The 2020 Triple Crown is the second one in Ilaria Cacciamani's career, after the first one in 2015. Cacciamani reaches a very small group of players capable of conquering the Triple Crown in Italy more than once: Sharon Curwood (1999, 2000) and Greta Cecchetti (2013, 2016, 2018). 

Cacciamani said: "it is a great satisfaction for me. Achieving great personal results like this is always wonderful, but it would be even more beautiful if at the end of the playoffs I could celebrate with my team."

Forlì Softball Club is the second team in the Italian softball history to have two players capable of winning the Triple Crown in the same year, equaling what Bollate did in 2007, with Dana Degen and Kelly Hardie.
Forlì is the first team ever with two Italian players conquering the Triple Crown in the same year.

/ Elda Ghilardi